Promoting the social commons

CORPORATE INFLUENCE THROUGH THE G8 NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN AFRICA

In recent times, new partnerships models between governments, business and civil society are increasingly gaining attention. One prominent example is the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition" (G8NA), inaugurated at the G8 summit 2012 in the United States.

A new working paper published by Global Policy Forum, Brot für die Welt and MISEREOR, puts a spotlight on how business interests are promoted through the G8NA. To that end, the paper shows how the initiative bundles existing policy initiatives and aligns national policies to corporate interests.

The paper concludes that the approach and objectives of the G8NA are highly problematic. The initiative serves as an enforcing mechanism for corporate driven blueprints for agriculture and sidelines national plans and international standards. It is dominated and tailored towards the interests of big corporate actors and is based on a reductionist approach of agricultural “development”. And lastly, the G8NA is poorly institutionalized and disregards fundamental principles of transparency participation and accountability.

For these reasons, the demand for radical change of this initiative – or in case of inaction its complete stop – is still valid, when the initiative enters its third year.

Discussing the social commons

No EU funds for countries that breach intellectual property rules

The European Commission will ban developing countries from EU programmes, or cut their funding, if they persistently break intellectual property rights rules, according to a trade strategy published yesterday (1 July).

The executive yesterday adopted two initiatives to fight IPR infringement - one for breaches in the EU and the other internationally. Such breaches hit economic growth and employment, it said. Both plans will be put into practice this year and next.

GFI Hails Continued Progress on EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive

Council of the European Union Approves Text and Timetable for Directive, Including Crucial Measures on Beneficial Ownership Transparency

– Global Financial Integrity (GFI) praised the Council of the European Union for continuing today the EU’s movement towards cracking down on anonymous companies, a major conduit for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion.

The Council, which is composed of government ministers from each EU member country, agreed on a revised text of changes to the EU’s Anti-Money-Laundering Directive (AMLD), which will now return to the Parliament for a second reading and negotiations with the Council on final wording. The Council text retains the requirement, which the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved in March, that companies and trusts formed in every EU country disclose their “beneficial owners,” or the natural persons who ultimately own or control them, to a central authority.

G7 Leaders reaffirm commitment to tackle illicit financial flows

G7 leaders meeting in Brussels reiterated their commitment to curtailing illicit financial flows stemming from crime, corruption, and tax evasion in a communiqué released today, as Global Financial Integrity (GFI) called on world leaders to push for an explicit illicit financial flows commitment in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The communiqué states that “We will continue to work to tackle tax evasion and illicit flows of finance, including by supporting developing countries to strengthen their tax base and help create stable and sustainable states.”